It has taken me 20+ years to learn a very valuable lesson regarding projects and students. I still catch myself giving students too much information regarding a project. Be as brief as you can with project instructions but make sure they understand the ending goal then step back and let the students do their magic and surprise you. The more instructions you give students the more creativity you take away from them. Let them solve the problem their way. We have to admit that as long as students are reaching the ending goal that there is no wrong process in getting there. We have to start giving students credit for being more intelligent than we were at their age. They are! Things have become so advanced not only on an academic level but also, on a much more obvious level, the technological level. Students pick up on pretty much everything at a much quicker pace. AS A EDUCATOR YOU HAVE TO LET THEM "PLAY" AND TAKE TIME TO MAKE MISTAKES AND THEN MAKE THE NECESSARY CORRECTIONS.
Most of my "growing" in this area as an educator has come in the last 2-3 years due to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) classes and projects. When you run a project based class this lesson becomes very obvious. I would also like to thank a colleague for improving my "letting them go" philosophy. Mr. Brad Page was/is a very good educator in the "letting them go" philosophy. I had the privilege of teaching STEM with Mr. Page for two years. It was a great experience in which I would say I learned as much as the kids if not more.
I also believe that parents are where this philosophy really takes hold. Let your kids fail. Let your kids play. Let your kids "fix" something that didn't work for them. This is where real learning takes place!
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